SwampFox

What really grows trust? You tell me...

What grows trust? If "trust is the new competitive advantage," what do you do to grow trust in your company? Send your answers to trust@jutenetworks.com or comment below.

Here's my view on what grows trust in business relationships:

Being attentive.

We all know that you "have to do what you say you're going to do." Some people use whiteboards, checklists, notepads, reminders, some use sophisticated task management software, and a lot of people just use mental notes. I use Jute. In minutes a day, I can click through all of the active projects I am responsible for and make sure that I'm staying on top of what needs to get done.

Knowing what's going on in a project.

If you are like me, you have a lot of work going on with different groups of people at any given time. All told, you may have emails from specific people about specific projects, and hundreds of emails from colleagues about different projects that you work on together. How long does it take to review the entire project's history so you can be ready for the next client meeting? Using Jute, it takes me just a few minutes to be ready for the big meeting, because all of the conversations, files and bookmarks are in one place.

Engaging in meaningful communication.

It's rare--very rare--that I close a new sale by sending an email that says "Just checking in..." or any other type of quick note to a prospective client. Successful sales, especially in a recession economy, rely on cultivating relationships over time, and staying focused on what is important to the the client, not to me. Jute helps me stay focused on this aspect of building a trusted relationship by offering a platform and a model to engage in conversations, share files and trade bookmarks of content that is valuable. Of course, one of the files I share is a proposal for services. (That proposal is typically easier to write well when I have the entire project history in one easy place like Jute.)

If you want to grow trusted relationships with clients and prospective clients, these are all strategies you need to use to get your job done. What Jute offers is a platform and a process to make it easier to get engaged and stay engaged with the people your business serves.

So try Jute free for a week -- use it to follow up with the people you meet during that week (get engaged) and followup with them over the next few weeks (stay engaged).

You can login at http://trust.jutenetworks.com using your Swamp Fox user name and password (or email trust@jutenetworks.com for help getting started).

Want to learn more? Attend one of our free "Jute Best Practices Webinars"